Another snatch session, and I felt a lot better about it this time than last week. 25kg is still not as high as I'd like to be currently on squat snatch, but it felt much better than last week. I think I've worked out why I hit a sudden limit when I can no longer drop down comfortably into the squat and lock out into a power snatch; it's got to be directly related to how much I can comfortably overhead squat. When it's too heavy going overhead, it's not stable and my body compensates by locking up and making it stable. I need to improve my overhead strength if I'm going to improve beyond my current 1 rep max of 35kg.

The WOD felt ok, it was comfortable being at 30kg and I could plod through without stopping for more than a few seconds when the going got tough. I managed to get 7 snatches into my round of 12.

A nice Friday morning session before my work's Christmas party kicks off. It was nice to hit bench press for the first time in ages, but it was annoying to fail the third set of 5 after 3 reps....really annoying!!

The WOD was a great one, the above WOD A was the level 2 version. The prescribed workout was 50 handstand push ups and 100 ring rows. I broke this into 10 rounds of 3 HSPU and 7 ring rows and finished in 11:27, which I was happy with.

I only managed the first half of the second WOD as the class ran over time a bit and I had to leave for work. I finished 40 banded pull downs and 30 lateral raises before getting out of there.

It was nice to have what felt like a great arm workout, ready for Friday fun.

50 overhead squats50 over bar burpees50 sit upsTo be completed in any order you choose. I chose to break this into 5 sets of 10 reps on each. Rx was 70kg, which is WAY to heavy for me in OHS, so I did this at 30kg and completed it in 13:58.30/12/13

DeadliftAttempt 1RM (110kg to beat)Failed - managed 100kg but couldn't budge 110kg to equal previous PB.Squat cleanAttempt 1RM (55kg to beat)SUCCESS - managed to squat clean 57.5kg. The first attempt was there, but a little shaky, was somewhere between a power snatch into front squat than a squat snatch. My second attempt was fine. Very pleased with this.

That concludes my 2013 year of crossfit training. Looking back I set myself a few goals for the year, some I achieved, some I didn't. The ones I failed to achieve were gaining 0.5kg of muscle mass per month and getting at least 1PB. I am still struggling to gain clean weight, and have been making a real push for this over the last couple of months. The PR goal started out well last year, but I stopped seeing the gains after a few months. I'm carrying this forward into my 2014 goals. The goals I was successful in seem small now, but at the time they were things I just couldn't do, so I am pleased that I have got these skills now. They need work still, but they are there. The goal was to chain together double unders, and learn handstand push ups and toes-to-bar. All of these I can now do - woop!!!

And on to 2014. Keeping it simple I'd like to achieve the following during the coming year.

One PB in a lift each month.Get pistols nailedGet chest-to-bar pullups nailedI'm going to throw this one in...but I'm not expecting to do it....I'd like to join the muscle up club.The main things I need to do to help achieve these are, attendance and food. I need to make sure I get to the box several times per week, I'm aiming for 4-5 times, one of week being barbell club. Food wise, I'm looking to eat around 2500 calories on rest days, and 3000 on training days. I'll monitor my weight weekly and adjust this accordingly.

Warm up:3 minutes double under2 rounds of:15s overhead squat hold (20kg, 30kg)2 lengths bear crawl5 snatch (20kg, 30kg)Lift:Achieve 1RM, then do 3x1 at 90% of 1RM.Got 50kg for 1RM (equalled previous PB), then did 3 x 1 sets at 47.5kg. Felt like there was more in the tank, so went for a new 1RM PR at 52.5kg and got this. I think there was probably some more there too. January goal....tick!WOD:10 minute AMRAP30 double unders15 snatch - 30kg

Managed to get 2 rounds and 30 double unders completed, at level 2, which was a power snatch into OHS, rather than full squat snatch. The first round's reps were full squat snatch, but I quickly tired of this. Simple on paper, but this really took it out of me.

WOD:Angie (Scaled) - 25 minute time cap70 pull ups70 push ups70 sit ups70 air squatsJust a quick write up today, as my arms feel like they're going to drop off after this workout! Pleased with my bench press, two weeks ago when I attempted this exact lift I failed on the last set, but it felt reasonably easy today, and I think I possibly could have gone heavier.

The WOD, was HARD WORK! I did the scaled version, the presrcibed amount of reps for "Angie" is 100 on each movement, but that would have taken me all day. As it was, I just completed the sit ups in within the time cap, and didn't get started on the air squats at all. The slowest part was the push ups, I always blow out on these really quick, and to be honest the last 20 reps were pretty worm like in movement. I'm mainly pleased that I managed 70 kipping pull ups though, my hands are now pretty torn up as part of it, but that's all part of the game.

Lift:12 x 1 SnatchThe intention of the lift in Barbell today was to stay at a steady weight and really try to dial in technique. However, as I got to the end of the session things seemed to be going so well technique wise I went for a PB, and got it!

Really pleased with these, all were squat snatched, and I had no trouble at all dropping to the bottom of the squat in one movement. I'm probably still catching the bar quite high rather than getting under it when low, but I know I'm not stopping in a power squat, and then lowering to the bottom. 37.5kg is no world beater, but I've been trying and missing this weight for some time, so it was nice to finally nail it. It didn't feel hard either, so perhaps breaking the 40kg barrier is around the corner.

Warm Up:200m runSnatch drills (possible the most intense warm up I've ever done!)Lift:6x2 OTM Snatch @ 70% (27.5kg)6x2 OTM Clean @ 70% (37.5kg)WOD:5 rounds for time10 ring dips (Scaled to 4 ring dips)400m run12 minute time capThis was an intense session! The warm up was a struggle in itself. We were pretty pushed for time, but Coach Coxy didn't want to lead anyone into the lifts or WOD with cold muscles or joints, so made a tasty warm up accordingly.All the olympic lifts went ok. I accidentally miscalculated and went just below 70% for the cleans, and should have done this at 40kg, but nothing too drastic there. All were squatted rather than powered, and felt good.The WOD was a blower! I opted for the level 1 of 4 ring dips as I need to do these strict still as my kipping ring dips aren't too good. I haven't done many of these recently, and thought I was better at them than I was this morning. Something to work on there. Completed this exactly as the time cap elapsed, so a dead 12:00.

Oooooof! This was brutal, for many reasons. Firstly, my 1RM back squat from one year ago is 90KG. I was determined I could go higher with box squat as there's not as much depth involved, and the purpose of this was to concentrate on the upper portion of the squat, and it worked! I got a 110kg squat, and while it felt heavy, as I've never had anything that heavy on my back before, the actual lift felt relatively easy. I tried at 120kg, but something happened here and as soon as I started to try to rise up I could feel the bar falling forward, my spotter Lewis was in a tight squeeze as he had the box in the way of me and him, but in my mind I could feel that the bar was going down, and forward quickly. Rather than let it take me down with it I just leaned into it and let it roll off me, over my head. Not a fun way to bail out, and looking back could have been pretty nasty, but lucky all was fine after I gave myself a minute sitting down to recover. Next time I attempt this I'm going to make sure I have a spotter on each side of the bar, so they can take the weight if it falls. Live and learn.

Secondly, the WOD was one we did as part of the Open last year, and it damn near killed me then! When I did this last year I attempted it Rx as I was registered for the Open, and in a 12 minute time window managed around 100 wall balls. This time, I decided to scale the workout to level 1, and do 100 wall balls at 7kg, in order to try and get well into the double unders before time was called. This was a good choice I feel, I completed the wall balls in around 8 minutes, and managed to get 60 double unders before time ran out.

Time now to recover from my massive squat fail earlier, and thank my lucky stars that nothing more serious than a slightly sore neck happened.

I wasn't sure whether to go today as my neck and back is quite sore after the bad squat fail yesterday, but I thought I might as well give it a go. Thankfully there was nothing involving headstands etc involved, so it was fine, although I did feel a little stiff and sore along my neck and upper back during the push press.

I did the push press at 45kg which felt heavy, but achievable. According to my notebook this was a PB for the 3x5 rep range, which is great news.

I managed 73 burpees in the 7 minutes, I think if my back had been 100% I could have got a bit closer to the 100 goal, but I was fairly pleased with this. It's something to aim for next time too.

My arms and shoulders were pretty shot, and I only managed 3 sets of 3 chin ups. Very disappointed with this, I know I could have got more out if I was fresh though.

100 lateral raises was not particularly fun either, breaking them up with the chin ups helped though. We were low on kettlebells so I used 2 2.5kg plates for this, which was a struggle when getting close to 100 reps, but I probably would have got more out of a 3 or 4kg weight.

I'm away in Ipswich writing songs for the next Extreme Noise Terror album this weekend, so there won't be any workouts done, but that's probably a good idea so that I can rest my neck and back for a couple of days.

Concentrating on front squat as I find this easier to keep my chest upright in. This weight felt fine, I definitely have more in there. The press was rushed as I was running out of time. It was supposed to be 5x5, but I dropped it to 3x5 as I only had 10 minutes left, however this wasn't enough time to rest properly between sets and ended up failing the last set after 3 reps.

19/01/14 - Barbell Club

Warm up:Snatch balanceHang snatchLift:3x3 high hang snatch @ 50-60%2x2 snatch from knee (increase weight slightly)5x1 snatchAnother snatch session at Barbell Club. Again, low intensity, and keeping the weights relatively low in order to drill technique. This is really helping, I'm getting under the bar faster, and lifts that approach my 1RM aren't giving me any grief at all, suggesting the my 1RM is probably higher than where it currently is recorded to be. It is only 37.5kg, so not earth shattering, but it's creeping up slowly as my technique gets better.

I'm away on tour in Spain this week, so I won't be able to get to the box, and probably not able to train at all. Really annoying as I was getting somewhere as far as consistency is concerned.